Engaging in nature-based activities is recognised as providing the basis for easily accessible, cost-effective interventions which can have other important physical and psychological health outcomes. The aim of the reported feasibility study was to explore the acceptability and potential psychological benefits of a simple ecotherapy-based intervention for individuals affected by cancer. A total of seven women from an existing breast cancer support group agreed to take part in the study by cultivating and customising a garden bowl for three months, maintaining a diary, and participating in a focus group at the end of the project...

Dominant models of health view people as essentially separable from their environment, affected directly by specific physical events or indirectly through idiosyncratic perceptions. Health is therefore a function of the individual, whether they are treated alone or in a group of similar individuals. A different (ecopsychological) view is that we are embedded within the environment; that notions of self, illness and well-being relate to where we are. Health practitioners and policy makers have realized that mind and body cannot be seen as being separate when promoting well-being, but 'self' and 'environment' is an equally false dichotomy...